Interlude

Due to a major re-organisation of several rooms at home, and an essential sorting out exercise of craft and office materials, I will not be able to post on the blog for about a week.

I apologise to anyone who looks at the blog regularly, but once my re-organisation is done I will be able to resume and catch up and I hope you will re-join me at that point.

In the meantime here is a picture of the first Journal Quilt I have ever made and I'm quite excited about making some more and getting better at it.

I have discovered that some of the people in the Contemporary Quilt section of the Quilter's Guild are making Journal Quilts as a series with a theme and plan to join them all together into a full quilt later on - now there's an idea!

Looking forward to returning to blogging in early September.

Looking forward to working in a more organised environment.

Table Runner

I have completed Module 10 and sent it off for marking.  It's always a great feeling as it disappears off down the line to the School of Stitched Textiles (SST).  Then almost immediately the next urgent craft priority takes over, so no twiddling of thumbs for me just yet.

The Table Runner was quite an enjoyable thing to make and useful too.  Not that I can use it yet.  As I near the end of my Patchwork & Quilting course I have to start preparing a Qualification Handbook which will include all that I have done on the course with photos and write-up so I need to keep everything neat and clean in case they want to see it or I need to take more photos.

The individual blocks are Rail Fence meant to illustrate the long boat fronts ploughing through the water, Drunkard's Path to represent arched bridges and Quilter's Fan to illustrate swirling river water.
I didn't quite get the shape that I wanted at the ends - a bit too curved.  Also some of the fabrics I used were lightweight and would have been improved with some interfacing to keep them flatter when sewn to the runner.  It's all a learning curve!

My final piece is to be a quilt which I have designed and sent off for approval before actually making it up.  I have decided to make it in silk (why do I never take the easy option, cotton would be so much friendlier I'm sure).  But I wanted a more exotic look for this design so I wait now to see if my tutor approves and gives me the go-ahead.

I hope those of you who read this blog will find what I will be doing in Module 11 interesting.  It is actually nearer to embroidery than quilting.

 I have to do samples of Sachiko, Banjara and Kantha which I have never tried before.  This is why I find doing a course so good for me because I am persuaded to try all kinds of things I would never do on my own.  So watch this space as they say.

Fannying About

Well I hope my title for this post doesn't get me banished from Blogger but basically making the Quilter's Fan block is a tad fiddly. I am using this block design to illustrate the swirling river. 

As already mentioned my assessment piece for this module is to make a table runner and I chose Inland Waterways as my design theme.  So the Rail Fence blocks were illustrative of long boats or locks or buildings along the riverside.  The Drunkard's path to represent arched bridges and the Quilters Fan to represent the river itself.

I took the template from one of my books and although searching the internet and my other extensive supply of books I could not find another one the same.  Lots of fan shapes and other types of blocks with fan in the title but not this particular one, apart from finding an image of a quilt done in the 1930s with Quilter's Fan blocks, and maybe that was the original.

However for anyone who is interested the book I used is called 'The Quilt Block Book' by Nancy Wick and it is full of templates for you to use.

First I copied the template on to plastic and then transferred  the shape to freezer paper.  Each block takes four fan shapes (and I needed three blocks for my runner so that was twelve). You can use freezer paper several times before it won't stick anymore.

Using a plastic template make things easier when you have multiple shapes to cut out.

As the shape is curved I chose to use scissors, cutting carefully around the freezer paper each time.  Wax side goes on to the wrong side, pressed with a dry iron and is carefully peeled off so as to avoid fraying of the material.

Two pieces are joined together first.  Fold the curved edge in half and put a very small nick in the seam allowance to help match the two curved edges together.
















Use lots of pins around the curves, perpendicular to the edge. 

When sewing on the machine keep the concave curve underneath because the feed dogs on the machine help to push it through and avoid creases and pleats.  However you do need to keep checking the piece underneath and lining it up and level so that creases and pleats are not created on the concave edge.  Hand sewing may be the easier option for some people.

Press the seam towards the concave side.

When you have two sets of joined pieces they need to be sewn together and matching the centre point is very important.  Not sure if you can see it in this photo but I pinned them together and then inserted a pin at the centre join to check everything was in the right place.

Using the same tactics as before sew this seam and then press the seams open.

The finished block below, ready to join to the others in a long strip for my runner.

Photos of that to follow.

I'm not as think as you drunk I am ...

I have been making two blocks today which will be included in my table runner.  The two together are meant to symbolise a canal bridge.  As mentioned yesterday the theme for the runner is Inland Waterways and the runner itself shaped similar to a long boat on a canal.

My blocks will be 6" square finished size and I am using the usual 1/4" seams. My curved lines for these blocks began 4" in from the edge and I used an OmniArc ruler to draw the curves. I made plastic templates with 1/4" seams added all round.  You can see here the paper original with the plastic template including seam allowance over the top.

To draw one yourself you can use graph paper and a drawing compass.  Also some quilting or patchwork books have templates for you to copy.

After preparing the templates I copied them to freezer paper because I find cutting around freezer paper the easiest method of getting the shape on to the fabric.  Iron the freezer paper waxy side down on to the wrong side of the fabric and cut exactly around the edge.  Note:  the freezer paper pattern has seam allowances included because I copied the shape from the plastic templates.

Because I need two blocks facing in opposite directions I had to copy another set of freezer paper shapes using the plastic templates the other way around.

Matching curves needs care and the seam allowance needs to be exact.

Fold the curved edges in half and finger press firmly and then cut a tiny notch in the seam allowance.  Both edges have to be lined up at this point as well as lining up the two ends exactly.

Pin these three points then add more pins, matching the raw edges of the curves very precisely as you go.

Starting a little way in from the edge (so that the sewing machine doesn't mash up the two edges) sew carefully along the curve, right sides together) using an exact 1/4" seam.  Take care to stop the larger piece underneath from forming little pleats as you sew.  It must be totally smooth.

Press flat with the seam allowance towards the concave curve.

The seams do not have to be sewn on the machine, they can, of course, be sewn by hand and for curved seams this is often a more attractive option for many people.  Marking a seam line to sew along will help and if a curve is difficult to sew just clipping into the seam allowance along the concave curve will provide some 'give' and flexibility.

My next challenge for the runner is to make three Quilter's Fan Blocks which are even more fiddly than the Drunkard's Path ones.  I think a glass of wine will definitely be in order when I've made those.

Table Runner

Finally I am starting to make a table runner which was planned and designed as part of my course work many weeks ago. Here is the drawing:

But earlier this week I have made some samples as well for my final assessment piece which I hope will be approved.  I have drawn up a design for a silk quilt with different shaped pots in lovely colours and a myrtle plant trailing around them.  The theme for the quilt has developed from some designs I did early on in the course and which I call 'A Cracked Pot'.  After drawing a range of designs based on this theme some of the drawings reminded me of exotic Asian pots which might contain perfume or spices.  So the inspiration for my quilt design has come from these ideas.  the myrtle plant is included because myrtle is used in many perfumes.

Although I have completed these necessary samples for my course tutor I am not putting them on here at present as they would not make much sense on their own.  Later when I am making the full quilt I will use some of the samples as examples on the blog.

In the meantime back to the table runner.

 It will have some patchwork blocks at its centre, two Rail Fence, three Drunkard's Path and  three Quilter's Fan.

These are meant to represent different aspects of Inland Waterways and Canal Boats on the river. 


Firstly Rail Fence blocks, which we have done before and some of us made pin cushions from them.  My reason for choosing Rail Fence is to try to symbolise the shapes of long boats and the man-made surroundings on a river.  Perhaps you remember the method.  We joined together four strips measuring 2" X 6 1/2" and then repeated this with another four strips in contrasting colours.

We pressed all the seams in one direction and then placed the two blocks right sides together and drew a line across the diagonal from corner to corner.

The next stage is to sew 1/4" on either side of the drawn line, then cut the block in half along the drawn line.  This produces two blocks.


Press the seams to one side.

I suppose the most important thing about this type of block is accuracy in cutting and sewing the seams.  If the points don't match up at the join it's a disappointment.


Practice makes perfect (or so they tell me).

The other blocks that I will be making over the next few days are Drunkards Path, based on the idea that arched bridges over the river could be represented by two of these placed together.

Finally, Quilters Fan, which is a swirly whirly shape and which, I hope will to some degree represent water.

Today I have only got as far as the Rail Fence blocks which have been produced in colours often seen on long canal boats with names and painted images in bright colours. So my colour scheme may not be the prettiest but I hope will represent the long boats, the river and its surroundings and finally, when I add the background to the runner, a blue sky and white clouds.

That's the plan anyway!!

Happy Endings

As I have been preparing for Quilting Arts on Sunday and then for three days away with my lovely youngest daughter I have had to put the course work on hold again for a while.

But I did manage to get the edgings samples completed and a method of presentation for them worked out.

Because I had to demonstrate some techniques for hanging quilts I decided to use this wall hanging arrangement with different hanging techniques on all four sides and this has doubled as my presentation method. 

Some of you will know that my large quilt hanger went walkabout when we had the Art & Craft Exhibition but you will see from the photo that I got it back in the end.

I described some edging methods in an earlier blog but the remaining samples had to have a variety of decorative finishes so I edged one with lace, another with prairie points and a third with ribbon.

For the lace edged sample I started with two different colours and some wadding in between. Begin by pinning and sewing the lace around the edges.

Push the lace outwards and press, then take the contrast backing and pin it around the edges over the wadding with a small turning.  Hand sew to cover the seam, see the pink backing in the photo here.

Press carefully making sure the iron is not too hot to damage the edging.

As you can see this example looks pretty on the back and the front.  In fact I pinned it to my presentation wall hanging the wrong way round at first then had to take it off and turn it to the right side.

As far as the other two samples are concerned:  you may remember we covered Prairie Points as a demonstration a couple of months ago at Quilting Arts.  However they are such a useful decorative technique I think we should do something specific with them later on and because describing the method needs a blog post all to itself it won't be covered here today.

My final edging sample was the green one shown at the top right of the wall hanging above.  I used ribbon attached as a flat piping inset.  The method is the same as we used in our little house wall hangings and also as is shown in the latest worksheet on making placemats.  As we are covering this currently I won't describe the method here.

On my return from Cardiff I will be making up a table runner for my course work.  This has some interesting patchwork details which I will describe on the blog as I do them.